Even nice girls...

Today I killed two of my three colonies. I've washed my hands and changed my clothes, but I can still smell the mothballs.

A few days ago, I opened one of them up to do the regular, monthly check. I have a medium super on each of the two hives started from packages this spring, and wanted to check for strength, mites, brood, and general condition going into the fall goldenrod flow. What greeted me was a foul oder and brood turned to ropy brown soup.

American foul brood. It's about the worst thing that can happen to bees and beekeeper, because not only have I lost the bees, but the equipment, too. I could scorch the boxes, but it isn't worth it to me. They were among my oldest, and I simply don't want to take the chance.

I called an experienced beekeeper friend, PB, the same one who helped with the hot hive last summer, to verify that this was, indeed, the dreaded American foul brood, and not the less deadly European foul brood. I've never seen it before, and wanted to be absolutely sure. He opened the hive, took a sniff, plunged a stick into one of the cells, twirled, and pulled out the ropy mess. And then he told me how to kill them.

He checked the second hive, too, which I hadn't opened yet. Same thing.

I have a third hive, about 50 yards away. It overwintered, has three mediums of honey on it, and seems pretty strong. We didn't open that one; it's less likely to be infected, and I'm going to pull the honey soon anyway. I'll check it then.

Because they were started from packages this spring, either the foul brood was on the frames I used or they robbed out a weaker hive and caught it. He found scale on one of the frames, indicating at least one round of brood that died in that frame. The frame was plastic, and I only use wood, and so it must be from a nuc I bought before I switched to packages. So--did the foul brood come from a nuc a few years ago? And the bees didn't show symptoms because they had been dosed with antibiotics? Or did my bees pick it up, and the scale is from a round of brood that I missed? Seems unlikely that I've ever had an active case in the apiary before without noticing. The smell, the sunken and perforated caps, and the ropy, liquid brood were unmistakable. I don't see how I could have missed it in a previous year, even the year Baby Bee was born, and I wasn't as vigilant.

How depressing. Once I'm sure the bees are dead (it only takes minutes; they're gone already, I'm sure), I'll bag up the hives and take them to the dump. I can't burn here, so bagging is my only option.